November update: Misplacemenet tests, PCB, EMC

Winter has arrived, the tea season has started and we are hurrying to deliver you that amazing tea maker that we all are dreaming off. This month we have continued our momentum and striving towards next milestones. As usual - the development is happening in multiple locations and dedicated teams are dealing with separate tasks. This will be a busy winter with most of the days spent on manufacturers sites. We are so lucky that our development team is willing to spend their days away from home to maintain the momentum. We have a strict timeline as we plan to reach a production ready “works like- looks like” prototype until February and we are so excited to literally see things coming together and taking MIITO shape.

Power increase

As we mentioned in numerous updates before, we had been struggling with the power to be transferred for a long time. The bottle neck used to be the coil (you probably all remember!). But we have solved that issue: now we can proudly say: We have mastered that challenge and reached our goal! We have tested the performance with different volumes and under different circumstances and the results we are getting are both constant and reliable showing a stable performance without the coil overheating.

Cup misplacement tests

Currently we are running a new set of tests noting down the changes in the system depending on how the cup is placed on the MIITO base. The coil is hiding in the center of MIITO base and here the magnetic field is the most efficient. But what happens if by accident you put your cup not in the middle but on the side of MIITO? Exactly this is what we are now testing but so far it look like the system is still efficiently working. Interesting that tilting the rod makes a way bigger difference in efficiency tests than the misplacement of the cup. We haven’t finished these tests but we can already advice that your rod should be placed in the cup correctly (the metal disk should be parallel to the base) in order to boil your water fast:)

Coil + Ferrite tests

All the tests mentioned above are done with 3 different custom-designed coils. As we mentioned in previous updates- we are very proud of the current designs and now we have to choose the best construction and suitable ferrites to accompany it. Thanks to the work done by our research partners in Germany, we now are running the tests with custom made ferrites that has the accurate mechanical dimensions and are provided by our manufacturing partners.

Research institute

We have received new simulations that show the magnetic field distribution around the coil and information about the performance of the ferrite during operation. They have also helped us by running theoretical tests on the cup misplacement and tilting the rod, but now we are replicating these tests with real life situations as described earlier.

PCBA

Meanwhile our manufacturing partner has made a huge step forward and have delivered our first version of PCBA for the main board and for the UI board. They have drawn the schematics, the layout, printed the board and placed the components on it. Now they are running tests to verifying that all components are working simultaneously and fulfilling their functions. We also have the first version of the UI board and we were excited to see the little screen saying Hello and the capacitive touch slider working for the temperature setting.

Wonderful nights of hand winding the coils :)

EMC tests

Before Christmas we plan to run our first EMC test. Then depending on the results we will have to redo the board, test it again and then put everything into the MIITO enclosure. We have chosen 2 partners for the preliminary tests and picked them because of their willingness to step in and help us to figure out solutions to problems. We will run the tests in both locations to get maximum input. We expect that there will be some challenges to be able to comply with the standards. The high power of MIITO makes us have more noise in the system and therefore we have to seek for protections against possible issues caused by the magnetic field. We are making sure that during this phase professionals from this field surround us and luckily our Head of Engineering has loads of experienced when it comes to dealing with EMC. She already has established the testing and verification strategy to be efficient during our EMC and safety tests.

That's it for now. Time to go back to work and we will share our next achievements in December!

Yes I agree,
I have been expecting to use this thing to save electricity but there is no update on the expected deadline..... They're research is cool but We need to have an idea on when we will get the product that we invested in.

Still no projected dates. Still no definitive performance numbers. Still no analysis of funds application and remaining cash. In all, still no answers to difficult questions.

Guys - this is not an acceptable way to treat people who have given you their money against promises. Your investors are more likely to be supportive if you're open and honest; being unresponsive breeds uncertainty and negativity.

Essentially you're still developing and using our seed money to develop a concept that wasn't proven from the start. You never once understood how to initially proceed, but needed our funds to begin the process. You had no ultimate plan from the start except to use Kickstarter as funding to develop an idea.

Superbacker

I'm with Yuriy below, cooking time is what it ultimately boils (!) down to. If Miito can't beat the old electric kettle with how fast it cooks, I'm afraid the kettle won't be put away regardless of Miito's kinder energy needs. Best wishes!

Thank you for your updates. It has been exciting to be following the posts and seeing what folks do go through in taking an awesome idea through so much to get an awesome final product. Thank you again & Best Wishes through the busy Holidays ahead! Cheers!

Hey Supporters!
Thank you for your nice feedback! It's great to see your kind words and ideas!

@Dylan O'Donnell: You're right. As we mentioned in past updates, that is the reason why we sometimes can't give exact numbers or specific details. But showing progress, pictures and videos is part of Kickstarter and the community. We love to have you all with us on this journey and share our progress!
@Munenori: Yes, the slider is still on the list! We're working on this in parallel!
@Simon: As we already mentioned in past updates, we'll probably have modify the initial design a bit. But since MIITO is about amazing design we'll always ensure that MIITO will feel and look great!
@Yuriy: We can't give exact numbers yet. But as we said in the last update we're still increasing the power and we now reached a very stable and acceptable time/power performance. We'll talk about details in future updates for sure!

Thank you Jonathan Pearson, marie.A.r and Dave Wfor your words!
And thank you Bart vercoutere and jurgen for your input!

I really enjoy the technical updates but don't you worry about cheap asian knock-offs of your product concept? I wouldn't be sharing the technical solutions and images of the PCB so readily - kickstarters are already being ripped off by technical manufacturing companies who have the in-house ability to get a version of the product to market quicker than you. First time commenter but long time supporter. Keep up the good work.

So happy to see some more great news. Life and work is all about ups and downs.
Whatever time it takes, it works for all of us, backers and creators.
What you long for is always a reward, and the insurance of satisfaction.
God never created the hurry :)
All my support as usual

Thanks for the update.
Hopefully MIITO is going to be completed soon.
My concern now is about the design of it. Is it going to look as shown it the campaign or not? Form the last pictures, stick and base look different (I prefer the original version).
Or maybe they are still prototypes